Publication:

Prescribing pattern of antimicrobial agents in intensive care unit of a teaching hospital in Central India

Background Patients admitted to the Intensive care unit (ICU) receive multiple medications from a variety of pharmacological classes due to various life threatening illness and co-morbidities. The present study aims to evaluate the current usage of anti-microbial agents (AMAs) in the ICU of a teaching hospital in central India.

Methods A prospective observational study was carried out at the 11 bedded medical ICU of R. D. Gardi Medical College and Hospital, Ujjain (M.P.) for a period of 3 months from Aug 2012 to Oct 2012. The relevant data on drug prescription of each patients was collected from the inpatient case record. The demographic data, disease data and the utilization of different AMAs were analyzed.

Results A total of 1671 drugs out of which 343 AMAs were prescribed in 148 patients (male-78, female-70) studied, that is, an average of 11.3drugs/patients and 2.32 AMAs/patients. In ICU cefotaxime was the most commonly used AMAs in 17.5% patients, followed by metronidazole in 14% patients and ciprofloxacin in 8.8% patients. Most common indication for the anti-microbial therapy was infection (51.4%). 80.4% patients were given 1-3 AMAs, 19.6% patients were given 4-9 AMAs. amoxicillin+clavulanic acid was the most common FDC noticed.

Conclusions Interventional programme should focus on infection control with rational antibiotic prescription aimed at minimizing unnecessary cost, adverse drug reaction and emergence of bacterial resistance.